Gender roles are social constructs developed over time and are not based on natural human behavior. This is because gender roles evolved as a way to organize the necessary tasks done in early human society.
Some may say that due to the fact that traditional gender roles have been practiced for so long, they should not be changed, and are now a key element in human development.
Nevertheless, in many of the modern societies today, there is no need for traditional gender roles, because both men and women are able to do many of the same necessary tasks, thereby making gender-specific behaviors irrelevant. These stereotypes can be harmful because they motivate people to condemn and oppress those who do not fit the traditional gender roles. As a result of this oppression, many people struggle to reach their full potential. Therefore, it is critical that we encourage everyone to follow and express their own truth, regardless of gender norms, so that everyone is able contribute fully to our society.
Many of the gender stereotypes we know today were not always present in the past; they are relatively new trends in human society. This is because social expectations of each gender change over time, and often develop differently in cultures around the world.
Sara Bobolts, a writer for The Huffington Post , stated how several common gender stereotypes changed over time. Bobolts describes how gender stereotypes, such as the color blue being for boys and the color pink being for girls, are new concepts. She explains that between the years and , pink was viewed as a masculine color, while blue was seen dainty and soft, making it best suited for females.
Bobolts also states that during the Middle Ages in Europe, high-heels were exclusively for men, rather than women. Furthermore, based on an article published by Pennsylvania State University, many gender roles around the world were dictated by the environment and the needs of a society. For example, in many old Native American and African tribes, cultures were matriarchal, meaning that women were often leaders, healers, and important figures in their communities.
This is different from most Asian and European societies, where men were the only ones with any social or political power. Therefore, depending on the time period or region, gender roles vary drastically. Since these typecasts based on sex are different depending on where and when they are used, they clearly hold no real significance to human society as a whole in this modern age; they were made up and therefore can change. As a result, they should not be used as a guideline as to how people of a certain sex should behave, because they are not reliable nor constant.
Although many people seem to fit within the specific categories of masculinity or femininity, these generalizations are simple social constructs. Nathaniel Givens, an author for Times and Seasons, also states that gender roles were not invented, but were developed over time, and that they cannot work as generalized distinctions.
At work, people also have presumptions about power, the division of labor, and organizational structures. None of this is meant to imply that gender roles, in and of themselves, are good or bad; they merely exist. Gender roles are realities in almost everyone's life. Previous Gender Identity. Those that identify with the gender that corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth for example, they are assigned female at birth and continue to identify as a girl, and later a woman are called cisgender.
In many Western cultures, individuals who identify with a gender that is different from their biological sex for example, they are assigned female at birth but feel inwardly that they are a boy or a gender other than a girl are called transgender.
Some transgender individuals, if they have access to resources and medical care, choose to alter their bodies through medical interventions such as surgery and hormonal therapy so that their physical being is better aligned with their gender identity. While gender identity is very fluid among young children, it is usually believed to form between ages 3 and 6. However, many transgender, genderqueer, or genderfluid individuals are not able to embrace their true gender identity until much later in life, largely due to both societal pressure to conform to the gender binary and the societal stigma associated with transgender identities.
Studies suggest that children develop gender identity in three distinct stages:. Although the formation of gender identity is not completely understood, many factors have been suggested as influencing its development. Biological factors that may influence gender identity include pre- and post-natal hormone levels and genetic makeup. Children are shaped and molded by the people surrounding them, who they try to imitate and follow. According to social-learning theory, children develop their gender identity through observing and imitating the gender-linked behaviors of others; they are then rewarded for imitating the behaviors of people of the same gender and punished for imitating the behaviors of another gender.
Another factor that has a significant role in the process of gender identity is language; while learning a language, children learn to separate masculine and feminine characteristics and unconsciously adjust their own behavior to these predetermined roles. The development of gender identity : The formation of gender identity is influenced by social factors, such as family. Fathers tend to be more involved when their sons engage in gender-appropriate activities such as sports.
Gender-schema theory was formally introduced by Sandra Bem in as a cognitive theory to explain how individuals become gendered in society. It describes how sex-linked characteristics are maintained and transmitted to other members of a culture.
According to gender-schema theory, gender-associated information is predominantly transmitted through society by way of schemata , or networks that allow for some types of information to be more easily assimilated than others. Bem argues that there are individual differences in the degree to which people hold these gender schemata.
These differences are manifested via the degree to which individuals are sex-typed. Bem refers to four categories into which an individual may fall:. According to proponents of queer theory, gender identity is not a rigid or static identity but can continue to evolve and change over time.
Queer theory developed in response to the perceived limitations of the way in which identities are thought to become consolidated or stabilized for instance, gay or straight , and theorists constructed queerness in an attempt to resist this. In this way, the theory attempts to maintain a critique rather than define a specific identity. Privacy Policy.
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